Given the rising demand for energy and the fact that for the
time being alternative sources of energy remain limited and
expensive, research must be conducted into ways in which the
adhesion of the oil to the bed rock can be reduced or
prevented.
Not all oil fields start spurting oil as soon as you drill into
them. And even if they do, that stops after a while as the pressure
drops. Usually the pressure is boosted artificially by pumping
water into the ground, pushing the oil upwards. But even then, over
half the oil will remain in the ground because it sticks to the bed
rock in which it is located.
If that proves possible, it may be possible to increase the
extraction of oil from existing oil fields by ten percent. That
means that at current levels of consumption, we will have enough
oil to last us ten more years.
Exactly such research is now being undertaken at the University
of Twente. The oil company BP has recently signed a contract with
Professor Frieder Mugele. His department of the Physics of Complex
Fluids will set to work for the next five years with €4.2
million.
"If we are to extract oil from the ground more efficiently, we
need to ensure that the black gold is pressed from the microscopic
pores in the rocks more effectively. The techniques of
microfluidics and nanofluidics, which are the main activities of my
research group, are relevant to this process, but they need to be
applied on a very large scale. Our expertise in these areas,
supported by the excellent facilities at the MESA+ and IMPACT
research institutes, has meant that BP has chosen to work with us,'
says Mugele.
Previous empirical research has shown that lowering the salt
content of the water used to pressurize the oil fields can increase
the yield of oil. Mugele's group will now determine whether this
effect can be improved further by modifying the molecular structure
of the oil in such a way as to limit its adhesion to the
surrounding rocks.
As well as Prof. Mugele's group, the Max-Planck Institute in
Gottingen (Germany) and the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) are
also participating in the research for BP. The results of the
research will be made generally available via the scientific
publications of the PhD candidates working on the research.
